Welcome to the area. First and foremost start learning the back roads and stay off 77. If you need to get on 77 at anytime day or night make sure you check with Waze or Google Maps Traffic first. The very first thing you'll notice down here the the absolute gridlock, it is bad. I am from the WNY area and didn't know what traffic was until I moved here.
Now onto the fun stuff. You'll certainly want to load the Mecklenburg County UASI Site into the radio. Fire Dispatch and EMS Dispatch are self explanatory. Now all the odd OPS Channels are EMS Talkgroups and all the EVEN talkgroups are for fire. The only expectation is OPS 4 which is county EMS calls.
Here is a break down of the OPS Channels for the County
OPS 3 Charlotte EMS calls,
OPS 4 County EMS calls
OPS 5,7,9,11,15,17,19,21,23 are used for calls where multiple ambulances are sent (bad wrecks ect)
OPS 10 & 12 are for highway responses with fire depts (MVA, Car Fires ect on 77, 85, 485)
OPS 13 is EMS at the Airport
I personally don't program any EMS talkgroups in my radios. I have no interest in listening to them, but that's me.
Charlotte Fire is self explanatory. They have an automated dispatch that voice announces all calls. On Monday they shut the automated dispatch off and use regular human voice dispatching. I've been told its to keep the skills up of the person dispatching that day.
Break down of City Fire OPS
Bravo - City Fire Ops
Charlie - City Fire Ops
Delta - City Fire Ops
Echo - City Fire Ops
Foxtrot - City Fire Ops
Golf - City Fire Ops
Hotel - City Fire Ops
India - City Fire Ops
Juliet - Airport Fire Calls
CFD Conference and talkgroup K-Kilo are encrypted so don't bother programming those.
Bridge is fun to listen to. CFD, CMPD, & MEDIC use it to talk between each other.
North Lakes (Lake Norman) South Lakes (Lake Wylie) are always fun to listen too. They are active all year but more so in the summer months. Multiple people die every year on both lakes by boating accidents, drinking, falling overboard and so on. these two talkgroups you will certainly want to listen too. The Viper talkgroup that Trumpetman listed is really only used by Fish and Wildlife on the lake and few others in Catawba County. All fire and ems in Meck County only use the North or South Lakes talkgroups.
The UASI Regional Talkgroups are not often used but they do provide some fun listening. PD Pursuit is used during car chases. I've only ever heard one other talkgroup used during the Mooresville Black Lives Matter protest a few years ago. That happened shortly after the riots in Charlotte in 2016.
As for the rest of VIPER Meck County doesn't use it regularly. The only time you'll hear it used in Meck County is if they are using one of the Statewide Event talkgroups. Even then it would be a cold day in hell before the city or county requested an Events Channel from the State EOC.
I don't follow police so I can't help there but Trumpetman has answered a lot of those concerns.
If you need any help with Fire or EMS feel free to PM me, I'll be happy to answer your questions.
Motoman55
